Tourists spent $1.9b in Bay of Plenty over last year

Tourism spend is up in the Bay of Plenty. Photo/File

Tourists spent $1.9 billion in the Bay of Plenty in the year to February 2018.

Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment today said this was up 7 per cent compared with the year to February 2017.

Ministry sector trends manager Mark Gordon said in the year to February 2018, international visitors spent $588m, up 9 per cent compared with the previous year and domestic tourists spent $1.3b, up 6 per cent.

"When it comes to the monthly expenditure, tourism spend in Bay of Plenty for the month of February 2018 is up 8 per cent compared with the month of February 2017," Gordon said.

New Regional Tourism Organisation fact sheets were also released today.

The factsheets were developed in consultation with Regional Tourism Organisations New Zealand and the wider tourism industry. These factsheets provide a regional summary of tourism spend and accommodation statistics by RTO using publicly available data from the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates and Accommodation Survey.